Ilayaraja & Ambika Movies Together List — 33 Films
Complete Movies List & Collaboration History
Last updated: 2026-06-04 · Data sources: Wikipedia, TMDB
Ilayaraja and Ambika appeared together in 33 Tamil films between 1979 and 2022. Their highest-rated collaboration was Vazhkai (1984 — 6.8/10). Films span Sakkalathi (1979) through Jothi (2022).
The Ilayaraja & Ambika partnership
After 24 years apart, they came back together for Jothi (2022). They didn't share a set between 1998 and 2022. 1985 was their peak — 9 films in twelve months.
Their work runs across 4 decades of Tamil cinema. For 43 years, a Ilayaraja–Ambika film arrived almost every year.
The shape of the work
The 1980s account for 91% of everything they made together. The 1970s belonged to Sakkalathi; the 2020s to Jothi. Ilayaraja scored every film; Ambika acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.
33 films across 4 decades
The 1970s accounted for 1 film.
The 1980s accounted for 30 films, averaging 5.3/10.
The 1990s accounted for 1 film, averaging 4.4/10.
The 2020s accounted for 1 film, averaging 5.9/10.
- Sakkalathi0
- Vazhkai
- Aalappirandhavan
- Kadhal Kavithai
- Jothi
The partnership in numbers
Partnership Pattern
33 films across 43 years represents consistent collaboration.
Language Distribution
Linguistic diversity: 1 language, with Tamil being their primary medium.
Where each was in their career
100% of Ilayaraja's screen credits are with Ambika.
Sakkalathi was Ilayaraja's acting debut.
Before Sakkalathi, Ambika had starred in 1 film, including Ivan Avanethan (1960).
After Jothi, Ambika went on to appear in 2 more films, including Saaraa (2025) and Angam Attahasam (2026).
Collaboration Journey
A chronological view of Ilayaraja & Ambika's professional partnership
Actors and musicians who worked on most of their films
Thengai Srinivasan appears alongside them in 9 films — practically a third lead. They worked with the same 21 people again and again — a small repertory company.
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Other iconic Tamil director-actor duos
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